Coimbatore: The Coimbatore Consumer Cause, a city-based consumer forum, has written a letter to the chief minister, chief secretary and state food secretary against the decision not to provide Pongal gift supplied through the public distribution system to white card holders, who are entitled to buy 3kg extra sugar. The forum termed the move discriminatory and said the government has not explained why it has chosen not to give the gift to the card holders.
In the letter, the forum said the government announced free Pongal gift to all card holders—around 1.84 crore people—including, Sri Lankan refugees, "But, not for nearly 10 lakh citizens of Tamil Nadu, who are holding ration cards with sugar option, which is discriminatory, biased and unfair."
The Pongal gift pack contains one kg each rice and sugar, a 2ft piece of sugarcane, 20g cashew nuts, 20g raisins and 5g cardamom.
The forum went on to add that multi-millionaires, senior bureaucrats, class-I officials, industrialists and ministers were eligible for all freebies and Pongal gifts as they hold rice ration cards. "We are not blaming them since they did nothing wrong as per the government norms. Unfortunately, many poor people, who preferred sugar card for various reasons in 1997 are ineligible for all freebies announced by the government," the letter added.
The forum's secretary K Kathirmathiyon told TOI that in 1997, people had the choice to select the type of card they wanted. "About 10 lakh people opted for the sugar card. This also included people such as small tea and sweet shop owners. They opted for sugar card as they needed sugar for their business. Such people are being discriminated against. Also, the government has not explained the reason for not providing Pongal gift to sugar card holders. I wrote a letter to the Centre about the discriminatory attitude three months ago and the Centre had directed the state government to provide an explanation. But, there has been none so far," he said.
The forum said it did not encourage freebie schemes. "But, if at all freebies are to be given, it should be for the needy and poor," the letter said.
When such schemes are done under a universal system, one section of people should not be discriminated against, Kathirmathiyon said. "If it is a targeted system, then it is fine to give freebies only to a section of people. But, there is no basis for keeping out sugar card holders, as the cards were not given based on financial status or age," he added.
According to the state civil supplies website, there are 10,76,552 sugar card holders in Tamil Nadu.
